1. Field
This application relates to streaming media of live events, search engines, and computer networks, including the Internet.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet continues to grow rapidly as a source of information and entertainment. The number of sources is also rapidly growing. This is in large part attributable to the ease at which organizations and even individuals can make information and entertainment available on the Internet.
Internet search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, are of great help in locating information and entertainment that may be of interest. Unfortunately, traditional search engines may not be updated frequently enough to enable viewers to locate streaming media of live events when they are of interest.
Other efforts have been made to assist viewers in finding such streaming media, as illustrated by the systems and methods described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,757,682, 6,721,744, and 6,556,989. The technology described in these patents relies upon viewers of streaming media to issue viewer alerts when the streaming media reaches a point that is likely to be of interest to others. Prospective viewers interested in a particular type of content may then utilize a streaming media search engine to locate streaming media of live events having content of a type that is of interest based on viewer alerts that have recently been issued.
Although helpful, systems of this type can fall short of providing prospective viewers with complete and timely information about the full spectrum of streaming media of live events that may be of interest. For example, the content of the streaming media may change so quickly as to make a viewer alert untimely. Until a viewer stumbles upon and issues a first alert in connection with streaming media that might be of interest, moreover, that streaming media may not even be known to the streaming media search engine.